Suddenly, Jeph was awake. He sat straight up in bed, rubbing at
his eyes, confused, disoriented. He tried to remember the dream. It
had been surreal, so off the wall it had knocked him awake from a deep
sleep. His bed was soaked with sweat. He tried to remember, "What had
she said?," he asked himself, "dream but not a dream? Something like
that." he got up, and put on some dry clothes. "Water, 10 degrees
celcius." he said into the replicator. He sat on the edge of his bed.
It had not even been a dream, he thought. In the back of his mind he
remembered very little of the dream, but the overwhemling image from
this dream, had been... his mother. He didn't know how he knew this, or
even why, but he knew that she was alive. Alive and well, and trying to
reach him. He would have to meditate on the subject more, "but right
now, I've got to DO something." he said out loud. He knew he would
never get back to sleep, or even reach meditation with the thoughts that
were swimming around in his head. He walked down the corridor's curving deck, to the holodeck. He was too hyped up to workout. He thought that maybe an episode from the 20th century author Authur C. Clarke's "Rama" might help him regain his inner balance. It was still night-watch, he noticed, as the corridor was illuminated only by the soft red glow. It's better, he thought, that this happened during night-watch, the bright lights that normally light the corridor, would've hurt his eyes.
When he passed the Captain's quarters, and heard what sounded like to be weeping, he thought about stopping, but didn't want to intrude. He just stopped long enough to leave a message in her personal console for her to contact him in case he needed his assistance. That way, he deduced, I won't have to bother her unnecisarily. He passed Jacob Chandler, who appeared to be very dissorientated. "Hi, Jacob." Jeph said, but got no respose. it appears that everyone is disturbed tonite, he thought, must be the food.
He got to the holodeck, and ran the "Rama" program that he created. He watched as the characters explored the new spacecraft, and encountered the machine lifeforms. After 5 chapters, he returned to his quarters, where he fell asleep shortly. He prayed for his mother to come to him again. And she did.
Jeph was awaken by Dr. Affity. "It's 0830," she said, "you're late for Alpha shift." she stated. "Is anything wrong?"
He thought about that last question for a second. "Yes," he answered, "where are we going?"
